How do you defend your fragile masculinity? With a gun! Prepare to throw up in your mouth.
The primary weapon used in the Newtown massacre was a .223 rifle manufactured by Bushmaster, and that is the last time I will mention the massacre for the next five paragraphs. Because if that had never happened, if NO mass shooting had ever happened, Bushmaster’s “Man Card” [site down at present, see screencaps and related images throughout this post] advertising and promotion series would still be indefensibly awful, grossly irresponsible, and plainly harmful.
I do not like asinine gender enforcement in advertising. I do not like it in my beer, I do not like it far or near. I do not like it on my soap: do I like it? Fucking nope. There is no time when any talk of a “man card”, or any implication that one’s entire gender hangs on a purchase, does NOT piss me off. But nowhere, EVER, have I seen it done so nasty, so viciously, dangerously stupid, as it is here.
Let me be clear: I’m a gun owner. I pack heat, I’ve got a roscoe, however you want to put it. And one of the criticisms gun owners face is that guns are just macho assholes buying lethal penis metaphors to cover up for their desperate insecurity. Responsible gun owners raise the counterargument that that’s not so, we are aware that these things are not toys or fashion accessories, they are deadly weapons and should be treated as such.
Well, except the indefensible assholes at Bushmaster, clearly. They’re explicitly selling rifles as toys, as fashion accessories, as a way to reassert your threatened masculinity. You think I’m kidding? The site they have up provides a list of ways to threaten your friends’ masculinity, and lets you inform them that they can have their masculinity back if they’ll consider purchasing some of Bushmaster’s line of firearms. If I were making up a parody commercial to INSULT American gun culture, I would consider that model way too on-the-nose to actually use, but Bushmaster just rolled with it.
This is not remotely okay. You sell weapons as weapons, because that’s what they damned well are. You do not sell them as some sort of cutesy little social one-upmanship dick-measuring thing, because that is not a good reason to buy a gun. Not saying there aren’t guys who buy guns for exactly that reason, just that they shouldn’t, nor should they be encouraged to.
Note, by the way, how fragile they’re assuming their customers’ masculinity is. When revoking your friends’ cards, you can’t make up your own reasons, no, you must choose from their preselected list, including such heinously genderbending offenses as doing pilates, being on a “short leash”, and feeling threatened by… fifth graders.
Your five paragraphs are up. A few days ago, kids that age got murdered for real, by yet another spree killer, another guy in the “danger age” between 15-35, another alienated, unhappy, fucked-up guy whose interior life was so far out of whack that the idea of shooting a bunch of children to death started to make sense to him.
We have enough of these cases now that we’re starting to see some patterns. Most of these guys felt alienated, felt humiliated, felt stripped of their power and their agency, and were also so damaged that the only way out they could imagine was cathartic, even redemptive violence, murder on an appalling scale. It’s still a bit early to say if Adam Lanza followed that pattern exactly, but it looks pretty likely that he did.
Imagine it. He felt powerless, impotent, unmanly, so what did he do? Why, he picked up a Bushmaster rifle to fix that feeling.
Just like the ad said he should.
This article is largely bull chips. If someone was trying to sell cars using the same ad, we wouldn’t hear a peep. “Cars and guns are not the same thing!” True, but there’s more laws regarding how to sell a car legally than guns, cars dealers and mfgs. have more legal protection than gun dealers and mfgs, yet more people are killed with cars on purpose every year than are killed with rifles.
M-14 is the schitz. AR-15 is fer p______.
I am not surprised to see such a vitriolic reaction from anyone here at the GMP. This is a rabidly politically correct group. The folks at Bushmaster have no reason to pander to PC people, the same ones who have called them and their products “evil”. A firearm has no will of its own, and companies are not responsible for the actions of deranged people. The ads you find so distasteful are a reaction (in a completely un-PC way) directly against the people who are attacking them. I have news for you. As distasteful as it is, it is great… Read more »
So your argument is that Bushmaster are, in effect, trolls?
Well sure, I’d agree with that.
But “YOU MAD” isn’t exactly a compelling argument in favor of repressive gender norms or against gun control. Bushmaster may be winning the battle, but if they keep this shit up they’re going to lose the war.
The problem with being a successful troll is that, at the end of the day, you’re still just a troll.
No, the point is that both companies which produce firearms and gun owners in general have been attacked inappropriately, and the attackers are being stereotyped just as they were. It is a normal human psychological reaction and defense mechanism and is to be expected… You could try to demonize them for reacting, but it is in fact, A REACTION. They didn’t start this fight. They manufactured a legal product which 99.99% of their customer base uses in a responsible and safe manner. Its to be expected they would push back rhetorically and in a way that that their customers can… Read more »
What Bushmaster is TRYING to call lost-card guys, (tongue-in-cheek) is “pussy.” But they chose not to use the actual word. NBD
First of all, why does the “man card” have a revocable status as opposed to a “permanent” one? Secondly, what happens if a male refuses (or more to the point) doesn’t want a man card to begin with(Personally I tend to think that if you need a gun to make you feel “manly”and or the need to kill something( wildlife like deer) or more likely SOMEBODY(as in a gang/organized crime/ outlaw motorcycle group/terrorist group- OMGs like the Hells Angels or OC groups like LCN call a murder carried out for the simple purpose of joining or at least associating “making/rolling… Read more »
The AR15, Black Rifle, etc is one of the most intrinsically beautiful machines ever made…
Out of the box they are renowned for their ease of use and intuitive kinesthetic fit.
It is the only firearm I consider not needing a tear down & tweak as it comes from the dealer.
I know of no other rifle, other than the AKs, that are so easy to train someone on.
And Stoner’s rifle is much more accurate & elegant than the AKs
The newer M4 derivatives are a gilding of the lily, truly the IPhone of firearms…
Real men chew meat flavored chewing gum. Until chewing gum is lnked with tragedy, it is OK to laugh, imho.
FWIW, a Bushmaster is to a gun what Porsche is to a car.They are very expensive with ultra high long range accuracy. They have zero intrinsic connections to this sort of affair.
I was listening to the President speak the other night when he gave the beautiful eulogy for the Connecticut children. His voice, demeanor and bearing comforted me, particularly as he read the names. He gave each name the love and respect it deserved. It was a moment that was a true man moment. I’m not sure a woman saying the same words would have effected me as much? I was thinking at the time that no male leader or celebrity in my 50+ years has shown his capacity to soothe the heart with such a gentle strength. Obama at that… Read more »
I think Obama’s speech may set up the biggest political fight imaginable. In one corner is American culture’s obsession with children and childhood safety in particular. In the other corner is America’s obsession with guns. It’s the innocent angels versus the avenging angels, two indestructible mythologies set against each other. I’m not sure at this point which obsession will win if it comes down to a fight to the finish.
I came to read this article just so I could lambast you for being an unreasonable anti-gun Nancy-boy. You managed to put me in my place before I got out of it. Well done. The Bushmaster ads were akin to the “Real Men of Genius” or any other light hearted beer ad out there. Except this is not just some beer ad. And then when I get to thinking about it, saying you must drink beer, any kind of beer, to be a man, is just ludicrous. There are things you have to do to be a man though. Be… Read more »
Aside from the morally reprehensible nature of the ad, it’s also deeply illogical to me. How does owning a big gun make you more of a man, really? There’s nothing to prevent a woman from arming herself with such a weapon. There’s no chromosome sensor on the trigger guard. It doesn’t depend on male secondary sexual characteristics to fire. In fact, an infant could probably squeeze the trigger. If anything, connecting my manhood to the size of my assault rifle looks a lot like compensating for a lack of manliness. As I’ve written on other occasions, there are eight year… Read more »
P.S. I wrote this before discovering that the shooter got his guns from his mother’s collection. If you steal a Bushmaster from your mommy, do you get your man card revoked?
I think when you shoot children you lose your man card irregardless of where you scored the firearm.
That rifle used in the Newtown shootings was actually owned by the shooter’s mother. You claiming that those ads had that effect on her?
Oh, I’m sorry. Are these ads only allowed to be viewed as offensive in light of the Newtown tragedy? Who made THAT rule?
Aww come on guys….. Hand in your man cards if you can’t see the humor in these ads. Burn them if these really rub your tender egos that wrong. All advertising is about this, always has been & always will be. “Can’t be a man, cause he doesn’t smoke the same cigarettes as me” When we became feminists did we have to lose our sense of humor? Being a man includes an ability to appreciate a bit of self deprecating humor. Now I’m going to finish my coffee- black no sugar, put on my Carhartt & walk back to work… Read more »
One of the negatives of embracing progressive thought…check your funny bone at the door.
When you’re always focused on the forest fires, you tend to miss out on the forest. The constant outrage is too draining for me. I wasn’t born with that much innate energy.
Kids use assault weapons all the time. Take a look at the video games they play.
Same is True in Switzerland where gun ownership is higher than the USA and Gun Crime lower than the UK. So why the differences?
My husband is Swiss and I lived there. The guns are provided by the army which all boys were required to join at 18 in the 1990’s (not sure now) . They train extensively the first year with a huge focus on gun safety and do a repetition course annually. You are given an extensive mental and health physical before you join the army and any mental problem or suspicious report from your school would disqualify you – so no gun. The guns are kept in locked up storage areas in your home or else in a provided lock up.… Read more »
Ellen – I’m from Europe and have lived in Geneva. You didn’t mention if the Kids in Switzerland play video games. It’s a while since I’ve been there, but even The SPS2 – Nintendo Wii – – XBox and a few other bits of technology have made it into the country! P^) Kids love them!
MediaHound, I’m in no mood today to sit by and watch you keep doing this thing you do. Ellen posted a lot on information about the Swiss. And you don’t seem to have a response for a single word she has said. And she very clearly called you out on your Swiss point. Instead, you leap over the video games. If you’re going to post here and declare others to be disingenuous, then perhaps you should stop running away from your own arguments. It makes you seem a bit disingenuous yourself.
Mark – you really do need to keep up. I know all about Switzerland, but then again it’s easy when you have lived there! P^) Geneva is a lovely place and I adored Como! I have already addressed Swizzy guns and safety else where – i didn’t see it as necessary to fully recap for you as you missed class that day. I did question the views being expressed that Video games make people use guns with reference to Switzerland cos if it’s that simple, shouldn’t the Swiss also be going for mass killings over some Jagerschnitzel and with alpine… Read more »
Lord. I think I prefer the Latin.
So, let me get this straight, because I am deeply annoyed by your critique of Noah’s article as “opportunistic” I have PTSD? And by the end of your comment, you’re talking about someone saying “all men are insane.” Who the hell said that? And why am I now having to address that comment?
Hm. Well, I think I’d better call it a day. Not that it hasn’t been fun chasing your ever more widening argument all over the map…
So, let me get this straight, because I am deeply annoyed by your critique of Noah’s article as “opportunistic” I have PTSD?
Mark – if you could manage to keep it straight, It would even shock me, and I’m the Queer Guy!
“world renown for teaching neutrality and tolerance” including tolerance for various dictators looking to hide funds looted from the public and neutrality vis other illicit transactions…
“world renown for teaching neutrality and tolerance” including tolerance for various dictators looking to hide funds looted from the public and neutrality vis other illicit transactions…
Well no one’s perfect – but I thought the subject was guns and why people in the US keep blowing other people away. The Swiss issue of them mostly having guns and not Killing each other on mass is just a side issue and to provide a little balance and contrast. It does help in perspective and better vision.
Ha Ha! The Swiss have a lot more than infamous banking laws to be ashamed of – they did some REALLY dirty deals during the war. However, as the world has gone global over the last 20 years they have looked at themselves with a more critical eye and they admit their shame and their problem. Educated and Analytic they are and neutrality and tolerance have helped them see themselves as others see them and they have made changes. Accounts have been shut down and money sent back to the owners – no backs! We got a check for $40.00… Read more »
Post hoc ergo propter hoc,/b> – the phallacy of choice!
I think this “man card” campaign is repugnant, and I support tougher gun control legislation to at a minimum reduce access to assault weapons. At the same time, I find this analysis to be a gross mischaracterization of when and how the Bushmaster ads ran. In particular, I can find no evidence – and definitely none in this article – that the “Adam L” examples were added *by Bushmaster*, *after* the shooting. That would be such spectacularly bad judgment about how to cleverly market their product that I find it impossible to believe the company or it’s marketing dep’t would… Read more »
Wow, I didn’t even notice the name attached to that one. I don’t know what Noah’s intent was, but I didn’t read it as him trying to say that Bushmaster was capitalizing on the tragedy. What I found so offensive about that particular ad (as opposed to the rest of the ad campaign, which is pretty damned offensive to start with) is the way it implies conflict between gun-toting manhood and 5th-graders. “You can feel like more of a man around children by packing heat!” is a pretty terrible message, regardless of who it’s directed at.
I don’t know what Noah’s intent was, but I didn’t read it as him trying to say that Bushmaster was capitalizing on the tragedy. And yet, that’s exactly how I read it. So, either I’m an exceptional idiot for interpreting it that way, or even if that wasn’t his intent, or there are plenty of readers out there who would think the same thing, that Noah was responding to a campaign that was invented *after* Newton, as if that made the 5th grade line and reference to “Adam L” cooler and funnier. Honestly, it makes no sense to me how… Read more »
Furthermore, if it was not Noah’s intent to specifically link the campaign to the shooting to emphasize how evil it was, then why the screenshot with “Adam L” on the revoked card with the line about 5th graders?
I read it that he was linking the ad and the shooting, but not in the sense of “Bushmaster made this ad to capitalize on the Newtown shooting”, but “This ad crystallizes the relationship between ‘guns = manly’ advertising and the Newtown shooting.”
Thank you, Drew. Thank you very much. To me, this is painfully obvious, but it needed to be said, apparently.
Marcus I salute you – and I note that my earlier comment was so critical that It had to vanish! I read things the same as you, concerning who has been using what and how. Virorum Bonorum don’t do that and Coetus Virorum Bonorum should not suffer it either.
Principes scriba boni viri habet exitibus – as they say in Chelsea.
These ads did NOT have to have come out this month for them to spark outrage. It’s ridiculous. They CAME AFTER COLUMBINE. They came in America. Where I grew up. AND had to go through my journey to manhood amidst this kind of crap. That’s more than enough. God, to even have to say this is infuriating.
I’m sick of seeing perfectly intelligent people type the sentence “but the implication is there” and then proceed to correct the poster. You, sir, are splitting hairs strictly for the pleasure of “hearing” the sound of your own voice. Outrage mongering? Seriously?
Outrage mongering? Seriously?
Very Much so – and it’s in very bad taste. It’s abusive and frankly offensive. It’s so Westboro. Taking the murder of a child an capitalising upon it is not only sickening – but falsely using it to twist reality to personal ends is beyond disgusting. It has nothing to do with being good … only manipulative.
I could not disagree more. Literally. It would not be humanly possible.
Your comments here seem weirdly inline with those of a hired NRA spokesperson. Good luck with that.
So now if you are disagreed with I am a Hireling of The NRA? and you wonder about Outrage mongering? Seriously?
You do need to check your outrage there cos it’s looking a lot like Privilege!
Media Hound,
I did not say you are a hireling of the NRA. I said you sound like one. Let’s stay intellectually honest, shall we?
Well mark – I’m all for Intellectual honesty, but that also requires factual honesty. You are aware that I routinely call out errors, omission and deliberate misinterpretations, and yet you think it condescending. So hard to keep everyone happy, aint it. Odd how you attempt to pain me as pro gun when I’m 100% against guns. It’s just that I’m not reacting with knee jerks, but looking at facts and patterns which you can gain by unlimiting your vision and taking a true wider view. It’s like people saying mass killing. What does mass mean. Unless you are honest in… Read more »
MediaHound, you are not calling out errors. That is your primary personal misconception.
These ads did NOT have to have come out this month for them to spark outrage. In theory, you’re right, but how many articles to do you see on GMP or around the ‘net heaping outrage on this campaign prior to Newtown? From what I could find, it looks as though Bushmaster’s “Man Card” campaign has been around since before GMP even came online, so if it was just as outrage-inducing and evil a week ago, there was nothing to keep the outrage from going viral for the last two years. This reminds me of the outrage many people expressed… Read more »
Post hoc ergo propter hoc, – the phallacy of choice!
It also helps with indignation and big pointy fingers doing the blame game.
Oh, dear. Is my outrage bothering you guys? Aw, shucks, I’m real sorry about that. Let’s forget the cynical manipulation of our entire country by millions of gun lobby dollars. I’m good and damned pissed off about all of it. Newtown is just one more horrible tragedy heaped on top. You may find the Bushmaster campaign to be a cheerful lark on the conceptual beach, but I do not. The underlying messages are the kind that get kids asses kicked in the locker room. Enough of this whole narrow bullshit view of what a man is supposed to be. Pandering… Read more »
You may find the Bushmaster campaign to be a cheerful lark on the conceptual beach, but I do not.
Mark you know that this is a totally false representation of both Marcus and myself, our views and our intent. If you are hurting I’m sorry, but it does not entitle you to keep attacking and misrepresenting others. When you use the events and child deaths to do that, you are not a good person.
If you have personal pain and grief, address that, but dumping it about and on top of others is not good and makes you look bad.
I already said I find the Bushmaster campaign repugnant, so the cheerful lark jab is unfounded. I don’t think it would make the Bushmaster campaign more repugnant to falsely accuse them of also being into dog fighting if a big dog fighting story (like Michael Vick’s) had recently broken. In fact, that would undermine the legitimate criticism against them, because they could (and would) debunk that charge and say, “See, people are just making up BS about us,” and a lot of non-critical thinking people would give a lot less weight to the still-legitimate criticisms. That’s the kind of risk… Read more »
Marcus, Noah is not saying these ads are post Newtown. The Michael Vick moment is not here. This article says that these ads limit the view of what a man is. That ads like these contribute to a culture wherein men are trapped in a narrow frame of what is “acceptable”. And that these ads are a particularly nasty version of that. That being said, Bushmaster has taken these ads down. Clearly, they see some relationship to current events. I’d be curious to know why they made that choice. And last but not least, MediaHound is posting that Noah or… Read more »
The lead photo, with a screencap of “Adam L.” having his man card revoked for being nervous around 5th graders fosters the impression that this campaign is post-Newtwon, as does the “most evil” characterization. In failing to note that this most egregious example was the work of a troll, or that Bushmaster subsequently disabled the campaign, the impression is allowed to stand that this was all just a piece of deliberate marketing, complete with allusions to Newtown. That would be mind-blowingly outrageous. If it happened.
If you need a gun to feel masculine, consider your man card revoked.
The thing I keep coming around to is this. It’s not just how harmful some male stereotypes — but it’s a real question of identity. To even say that you *have* to be a man. That your manhood can be taken away from you. As if it wasn’t yours all along. That’s just — I hate to say it — crazy. And there’s something awful about the thought that — if it were *actually* true — that your manhood could be taken away from you. “Revoked, as it were.” Don’t you see? Here’s my big insight……….when you don’t own your… Read more »
But who is revoking it? Other men? Women? And does that mean they are buying into the system of the problem to begin with?
I think it’s whoever you’re worried about judging you, really. The guys in the locker room. Your wife/girlfriend. God. Anybody and everybody. It’s one of those beliefs that doesn’t make much sense when you look at it, but it’s taken so completely for granted that it rarely gets examined. The logic at work here is not too far removed from the penis-stealing witch panics that happen in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but the fear of losing one’s identity is a very basic, primal fear. I’m reminded of a post that I… Read more »
I eventually came to the conclusion that what was so hurtful about it – for me, at least – was having part of my identity negated by someone else. Being told, in effect, “You’re not the person you believe you are.” I suspect it’s similar (although smaller in magnitude, I’m sure) to the way that a transgender person feels when being told that their biological sex determines their gender, regardless of how they feel about themselves. I’ve been trying to get at this for a long time. These days in the gender discourse the questioning of a man’s identity has… Read more »
Here’s my big insight……….when you don’t own your own identity……..isn’t that the definition of insanity?
No It’s not an insight – It’s Piss Poor Use Of Language and Very bad Advertising as to what Insane means! a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioural patterns. Try and tell a Narcissist that they don’t own their identity – they will laugh in your face because they own it 1000%.
Insight NO – Hyperbole YES!
There’s more than one frame for “piss poor use of language.”
I’d say no one really owns their identity, not exactly. All identities have a certain element of qualification…of society accepting that the identity you put on is real. And so this how you end up with more desirable identities…more privileged identities. Passing privilege, so to speak…being able to pass as white, cis, straight, etc. Or even being able to pass as gay (being accepted as gay) as opposed to bi…being able to pass as black (as opposed to multiracial)…being able to pass as a man or woman (trans or cis) as opposed to genderqueer. Even with religious identities…being able to… Read more »
It’s amazing to me that some of us are arguing the details when what we need is a full blown meta discussion. These ads go straight at the meta problems. They promote the crappiest of narratives that narrow men’s options about what a “real man” is. These f**king ads make me want to wear a pink bridemaid’s dress and dance in the town square. For the next twenty years. %$#!!@!%^%$$
Amen.
Seriously?
Why would any of you WASTE your time with something like this???
Let it go.
Spend time focusing efforts on something greater.
OMG! The two black men of the DC Sniper case used a Bushmaster too. But as I recall, the press and libs focused on black-anger and a lifetime of unfairness…not enough hugs n such.
Oh, it was there all right, on their domain. I screen-captured the hell out of it because I couldn’t believe it was there, esp with the comment about 5th graders. Nauseating.
Well done, Noah! This ad needed to be smashed somewhere and I was proud to see it done so beautifully here.
~Cameron
Sorry – I don’t think Noah or this site can take credit – it’s been an issue for a number of days, and other folks have done the heavy lifting. It’s appearance here is as Noah makes clear POST takedown.
We have enough of these cases now that we’re starting to see some patterns. Most of these guys felt alienated, felt humiliated, felt stripped of their power and their agency, and were also so damaged that the only way out they could imagine was cathartic, even redemptive violence, murder on an appalling scale. It’s still a bit early to say if Adam Lanza followed that pattern exactly, but it looks pretty likely that he did. Imagine it. He felt powerless, impotent, unmanly, so what did he do? Why, he picked up a Bushmaster rifle to fix that feeling. Just like… Read more »
uhm,, the post is really about the ads not “he”. And if anyone doesn’t believe the ads existed ask yourself where the screen caps came from, and why is it that part of the Bushmaster site, and the ONLY part of the Bushmaster site that is down is the mancard section ? You can dl a 109MB catalog if you dont believe me or take offense, big fella.
um…he didn’t pick a bushmaster. He NEVER picked a bushmaster, nor did he ever BUY a bushmaster… his mother did, LONG before he went berserk. So now what’s yer point?
what’s yours, Rob? That advertising didn’t cause the attack, or that he didn’t actually use the weapon to commit the attack, or that it’s the mom’s fault? Or what?
Rob, are you arguing that he never picked up a Bushmaster? That seems unlikely, considering that he fired it. That’s not really the point of the article though, that’s just a timely example. The point is that these ads are saying firearms are substitutes for self-esteem or self-awareness.
Don’t feel manly? Here’s thirty rounds of manly, go spread your seed.
Full disclosure: I am a gun owner.
no, i’m not
I think the fact that a woman purchased the Bushmaster used at Newtown complicates the whole “definition of masculinity” thing. Perhaps the company is missing out on a whole sales opportunity by couching it as a manly product. Where is the gender outrage like with the Easy Bake Oven? Will there be calls for the company to market to women more? : – )
We have enough of these cases now that we’re starting to see some patterns. Who is this “WE”? Sorry but anyone using the grief and damage to propagandise with crud Factoids build around a mythical we Don’t Get My Vote! The conduct is not only reprehensible and in very bad taste, it shows a lack of clarity in both mind and morality. If you need to have an emotional purge that’s fine, but purge and blog after is the rule! As a child of the net – I would ahve expected you to have gone to the wayback machine …… Read more »
It’s bullshit like this that makes me glad GMP exists. Feminists have (rightly) spent a great deal of time critiquing the messages that advertisements send about women. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the toxic gender stereotypes that are sold to men. That has to stop. One of the most insidious aspects of the sexism that men face is that it primarily comes from other men. Feminists have been helped, in a way, by the fact that most of the oppression they faced was external. By contrast, men are hedged in by a set of taboos and insecurities… Read more »
Morgan, I can find zero evidence that these ad panels or pages ever existed. None…..ever.
It use to be found at http://www.bushmaster.com/mancard as of a few hours ago. Maybe they decided to take it down.
Ben, you’re right. I just checked and got a message saying the website declined to show the page.
Oh They Did – and they can be viewed via the wayback machine That’s h ttp://archive.org/ and copy in the URL for h ttp://bushmaster.com/mancard/
The last snapshot was from June 2011 – but curiously nothing since – the wayback machine does normally re index at least once per year and the last entry is over a year. – June 2011.
Google cacher indicates that there was a page present 17 Dec 2012 22:36:40 GMT. ..ot at least there was a page with flash content … and that would agree with what’s in the wayback machine.
… and it’s all a shocking poor quality regurgitation of so much else on the net h ttp://www.buzzfeed.com/scott/bushmasters-shockingly-awful-man-card-campaign the list is endless! It’s been doing the rounds for a couple of days
… which brings to mind the question, Rob: you thinking Noah made it all up?
Todd you don’t have to make things up to exploit them for self image. Just lying alongside, and even sneaking into bed late in the day can be effective. Band Waggons are like that – others walk more interesting and less crowded roads.
Mediahound, your focus here could not be more narrow and weirdly dismissive. You call the outrage I am currently feeling against these ads a “bandwagon” and you seem hellbent on implying Noah is late to the party due to the fact that these ads have been around a while. As if we are forbidden to take another look in light of recent events. Or take another look any time we damn well please, regardless of recent events. Either way, you are not the gatekeeper for who gets to speak and when. If your road is so much more interesting, please,… Read more »
Mark – I’m not taking the Narrow View – I’m using Wide Angle Lenses! It does allow behaviour and views to be kept in perspective and not made into Micro Media gems to be profited from!
Noah wrote this article from a place of genuine disgust and outrage. To imply otherwise is very narrow minded.
I refer you to the wide angle lenses I spoke of some time ago.
Media Hound,
Your dripping condescension always makes me want to start tossing around the furniture but I’ll resist the urge. LOL.
Oh I see your language got changed? Maybe it’s for the best and promotes intellectual honesty around the subject over other uses of language. Do keep up.
I think the ads are stupid too. But I’m not going to get excited about them. The strong, projective-like reactions to one side or another of feminist-like issues are not reactions to the problem. They are the problem. I think one thing that’s going on is men resisting redefinition of masculinity as something bad. Intuitively, the idiotic ad-writers tried to tap that. Besides, AR – 15 type weapon are dumb. For a nice rifle, get an M-14.
The system makes us all complicit to a certain extent though. I found this article fascinating, but there is a whole gender missing in it. Not that what I’m saying is about blame, certainly not. But about how do we break out of a system where dominance and then humiliation for “failing” that dominance cracks people.
This one as well. From Ms. Magazine. How do we see ourselves as women in this is part of the total issue. It’s all of us.
Yes Julie – so many things going missing in the frenzy – genders – facts – reality! Shocking the stuff that gets lost in the rush!
I think that Salon article does a pretty good job of framing the issue. In many ways, I think that male insecurity is the flip-side of male privilege. The article points to men’s loss of dominance in society as a cause of male insecurity, but I think it runs even deeper than that. Men were insecure about their place in the world even before the advent of feminism. It’s a little like a twisted version of Spider-Man’s maxim, “With great power comes great responsibility.” With male privilege, it’s more like, “With unfair power come unfair expectations.” Men have long been… Read more »
Great comments, Morgan.
Indeed, very thoughtful and balanced commentary.
There’s been a lot of discussion of how male privilege is unhealthy, but less discussion of how the unrealistically high standards we hold men to are also unhealthy. Precisely. The expectations and standards that men are held to are usually either actively left out of the conversation (such as leaving the male experience out of body image discourse), they are minimized to the point that they may as well not have been brought up in the first place (such as being treated like one off anomalies instead of regular occurrences) , or at the worst are twisted until said expectations… Read more »
One of the most insidious aspects of the sexism that men face is that it primarily comes from other men.
no it does not, not in my experience as a transvestite, or in the experience of a recent sahd article on gmp, when he talked about how women viewed him. women are equally culpable in this enforcement on men.
I didn’t mean to imply that women were entirely blameless. Our whole society is complicit in the establishment and policing of unhealthy gender norms. However, I do think that this particular problem is more the doing of men than of women. I can only speak for myself, but I would guess that for every time I’ve had my masculinity questioned by a woman, it’s been done ten times by men. Maybe I’ve simply been lucky and have known unusually reasonable women. There have certainly been a few who bought into sexist bullshit, but not very many. Most of the women… Read more »
I do think that this particular problem is more the doing of men than of women. I can only speak for myself, but I would guess that for every time I’ve had my masculinity questioned by a woman, it’s been done ten times by men. being a sahp, sahd, or wearing what are now considered to be women’s clothing are just some of the things that are still ‘firmly feminine’ do you do a ‘firmly feminine’ things in public? because if you dont, then what makes you believe that you have greater insight into who is enforcing gender limits onto… Read more »
I do think that this particular problem is more the doing of men than of women. I can only speak for myself, but I would guess that for every time I’ve had my masculinity questioned by a woman, it’s been done ten times by men. being a sahp, sahd, or wearing what are now considered to be women’s clothing are just some of the things that are still ‘firmly feminine’ do actually you do a ‘firmly feminine’ thing in public? because if you dont, then what makes you believe that you have greater insight into who is enforcing gender limits… Read more »
I’m with Morgan. Men are far more watchful and militant in their enforcement of gender. I never felt the fear of having my ass kicked over the issue by women.
I agree that whoever started it may not matter but on a personal note I have to say that my own experiences differ very much from your own.
Not only have I had more experiences of having my masculinity questioned by women than by men but women were the ones that would dig their heels into the ground and double down when I answered their challenge.
Funny thing is standing my ground to men that question me works just fine. Standing my ground to women on the other hand, not so fine.